Travel & tech journalist from New Delhi, India

The Empire Strikes Back – The new Tata Hexa (Stuff)

It looks like something Darth Vader would drive on vacation, it rolls over rocky trails like a Star Destroyer on a mission and it’s packed with tech…

Iron fist in a velvet glove

From the back, the clean lines make the Hexa look rather suave. Walk around to the side, and it comes off as strikingly modern – the kind of SUV that would be perfectly at home in a hotel porch (or outside Lord Vader’s lakeside villa). But our fav angle has to be the head-on view and its look of ‘measured menace’. A bit like an MMA champ who’s also a PhD in Theology and wears Saville Row suits to wine tastings.

Highway star

Tata’s 2.2-litre Varicor 400 has enough torque to make highway jaunts a breeze. You can get the Hexa with an auto ‘box, which gets Tiptronic shifts, and a ‘Race Car’ mode. But the best part about this monster is its sublime ride quality. At high speeds, it feels as planted as a majestic oak tree from a fairy tale. Yes, there’s body roll, but you’ll be okay as long as you remember it’s a big, heavy SUV and not an agile hot hatch.

Originally published in the Dec 2016 issue of Stuff India. You can read the web version on the Stuff website.